Reviewer : Septia Iryani
Date : January 4th, 2017
Secondary Data has increased a lot from the creation
and maintenance of large longitudinal data sets by governmental and other
funding agencies and collaborations between other social science researchers,
by those 2 factors have made it possible for researcher to explore topics and
design studies utilizing the best and the worst pratices and methodologies from
previously disparate fields. Secondary Data in gifted education had a early
beginning with the influential work of Lewis Terman and his colleagues at
Standford University in the 1920’s. His work of the Genetic Studies of Genius
was considered to be the first longitudinal study ever conducted in the field
of psychology. Terman and his colleagues had managed to collect and archieve
approximately 1.500 gifted children with IQ more than 140 in over decades. Most of
the data that Lewis Terman had collected can still be accessed by comtempory
researches and have resulted in several studies over the past decade. Although
the use of Terman’s data has decreased in recent years, current researchers in
gifted education continue to analyze these data in order to provide new
insigths into the lives of the gifted.
According to Windle (2010) primary data analysis is
mainly used to collect and analyze first-time data using originally derived
research questions and methodology. Secondary data on the other hand is useful
as a way to explore alternate relationships among variables or form different
research perspectives as well as to conduct research studies using statistical
methodology that may not have been available at the time of the original data
collection. There are a few benefits of secondary data. First, archieved data,
especially from nationally representatives data sets, make large data sets
readily available to gifted researches at little or no cost. Second, large
government-funded research studies typically employ data collecton of multiple
contexts, allowing for exploration of larger systemic or ecological influences
on development. Third, use of nationally representatives data sets allows for
broad selection and sampling and, thus, increases external validity of
findings. Last, secondary analysis of large archieved data sets allows access
to an array of variables relevant to various psychology. It is not surprising
that secondary data analysis provides a great opportunity for interdisciplinary
research, as interdisciplinary collaboration often resides at the root of
secondary data analysis.
There are several limitations and unique challenges
that researchers face while conducting secondary analysis. Conducting secondary
analysis on existing data sets can be difficult sometimes, especially when one
lacks specific training at he graduate level such as coverting data provided on
CD’s to a usable format. There are numerous issues with measurement when
conducting secondary analysis on archieved data. Additionally, extreme care
needs to be given to establishing reliability of newly created scales,
especially when being used for the first time with gifted samples. Lastly,
sample compostion can be especially challenging when using archived data
because most large, longitudinal studies were not design with identification of
gifted students in mind. This may impact the types of research questions and
variables that can be explored, particulary given the controversy that exists
around identifying and defining giftedness.
There are two national datasets that is accessible
for gifted research which is National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
and the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Both of them are accessible
through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Reasearch
(ICPSR). The ICPSR is a national and international consortium of approximately
700 academic and research organizations, and it archieves more than 500.000
research files. The ICPSR was founded in 1962 by the Survey Research Center at
the University of Michigan.
Add Health or Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health was funded through a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD). Add Health collects data from 7th grade
to 12th graders at around 80th high schools across the
US. Add Health also collected contextual data from the gifted children’s
parents, siblings to explore their behaviors. Add Health collects data for 4
times, the first time around was more focused on 7th through 12th
graders family, school, physical, and behavioral characteristics. The second
time or wave II was to analyze their lives one year later which included
additional information such as nutrional habits. Wave III was focused on
college and work issues. Wave IV which surveyed the participants as they faced
issues of young adulthood. These data sets have been used to track developmental
trends as well as compare patterns across different group.
The Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) datasets
were designed to monitor the transition of a cohort of more than 15.000 10th
graders through highschool. ELS is a multi level study that collected data not
only from the students themselves but also from their parents, teachers,
schools, and librarians. By surveying these multiple respondent populations
over time, the ELS offers great opportunities for researchers to investigate
the various social factors that could exert an influence on students. Though the
ELS does not label gifted and talented students as such, there are several
option for researchers to find it using the various questionnaires available.
Conclusion:
Secondary Data is datasets that was collected by
other people, usually by funded agencies. Many believed that secondary data was
just a replacement for primary data. Primary data is mainly used to collect and analyze
first-time data using originally deprived research questions and methodology. By
using secondary data, researchers can explore the data, and can see it from a
differen perspective. By this alone, secondary should be viewed as a complement
to primary data.
There are a few advantages at using
secondary data. First, the datasets from a funded agencies usually represent
nationally. Second, large government-funded research studies typically employ
data collection of multiple individuals, allowing exploration of larger
systematic or ecological influences on development. Third, use of nationally representative
data sets allows for broad selection and sampling, and thus, increase eternal
validity of findings.
Where there are advantages, there are
disadvantages at using secondary data. First, researchers sometimes have to
convert the data to a usable format, which takes a specific training to do
sometime like this. Second, researchers may have trouble at conducting
secondary data to another measurements.
In this journal, it only mentioned a
couple website to access the secondary data for gifted children such as the
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and the
Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS). Both of these data sets are accessible
through the Inter-University Consurtium for Political and Social Reasearch
(ICPSR). Over all, this journal covers almost everything about the secondary
data concerning gifted children but this journal should have showed the data
that is in the data sets to make it complete.
Orginal
Article:
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=giftedchildren
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